GCash said on Wednesday it has removed 7,000 merchants from its platform as it steps up efforts to curb digital fraud while backing the central bank’s push for stricter merchant verification rules.
The Ayala-backed mobile wallet said it supports tighter onboarding standards as fraudsters increasingly shift to more sophisticated online schemes, including fake QR codes, fraudulent payment screenshots and imitation payment pages.
GCash said its monitoring systems are detecting suspicious transaction patterns and sharing findings with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
“Scammers are exploiting trust, urgency, impersonation, and social engineering tactics — not just technology,” GCash chief information officer Miguel Geronilla said in a statement.
The company said it has blocked 7,000 merchants since 2025, including accounts linked to suspected illegal online gambling, suspicious transactions and misuse of payment channels.
“In order to protect our users we will continue to enact stronger coordination, stricter onboarding controls, and proactive monitoring,” Geronilla said. “We ask our merchant onboarding counterparts to ensure stricter verification to avoid QR misuse.”
The move comes as regulators and law enforcement agencies, including the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, step up efforts to strengthen safeguards in the country’s digital payments ecosystem.
“The digital payments ecosystem can only remain trusted if all participants uphold strong compliance, monitoring, and consumer protection standards,” Geronilla added.
